Saturday Morning Physics

Discover stimulating, educational, and family-friendly scientific events.

Each lecture begins promptly at 10:30 AM and lasts until 11:30 AM, followed by a half-hour Q&A session.
Note: There is a pause between the talk and the Q&A for patrons to leave if needed.

Fall 2026 Schedule:
October 3, 17, and 31
November 14
December 5

Click on this link (or see below) for the Winter 2026 Saturday Morning Physics schedule

October 3
Do People Really Believe THAT? The Science of Survey Research
Yanna Krupnikov, Professor of Communication and Media (U-M)
From exercise habits to trust in science, so much of what we know about  "the public" comes from surveys. Are surveys always a reflection of people's "true" preferences? And, why does it seem like surveys often get it wrong? This presentation considers how seemingly small survey design decisions can have big consequences when measuring public opinion.

October 17
Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and Einstein’s Cosmological Constant
Bharat Ratra, Distinguished Professor of Physics (Kansas State University)
Dark energy is the leading candidate for the mechanism driving the acceleration of the universe's expansion. Bharat Ratra will describe the astronomical data that persuades cosmologists that dark matter and the as-yet-undetected dark energy are by far the main components of the universe at present. He will review how observations have led to the development of a quantitative "standard" model of cosmology that describes the evolution of the universe from the structureless epoch of inflation to the complex structure seen today. In this non-technical talk, he will also discuss the basic physics and the history of the ideas underlying this model.

October 31
Spooky, Spectacular Halloween Demo Show (Family-Friendly)
Physics Faculty and the Warren M. Smith Demonstration Laboratory Team (U-M Physics)
A family-friendly extravaganza of physics demonstrations and explanations that are a little bit scary and a lot of fun!

November 14
The Physics of Art and the Art of Physics
Xiaoming Mao, Professor of Physics and Mechanical Engineering (U-M Physics and Engineering)
At the same moment Monet was painting the shimmering atmosphere, Rayleigh was explaining its physics. Moving from light and color through Helmholtz’s science of perception, this talk traces the remarkable journey from physical reality to what the eye sees, what the artist creates, and what the audience imagines—while discussing the physics principles behind it. It then turns the lens around to ask how beauty, elegance, and symmetry guide physicists in their search for the laws of nature.

December 5
So, You've Taken an Image with a Telescope — Now, How Do You Measure the Expansion of the Universe?
Erik Peterson, Professor of Physics (U-M Physics)
Astronomers use light to study everything from individual stars and planets to the history and evolution of the Universe. By observing the sky across all forms of light – from radio waves to visible light to gamma rays – we can turn images from telescopes into measurements of the cosmos. In this talk, I describe how we go from taking images with telescopes all the way to making grand statements about the expansion of the Universe, focusing on exploding stars called supernovae and examples from my research projects DEHVILS and SAINTS.